Signs of Life is a sci-fi survival sandbox platformer with a combination of procedurally generated and hand-crafted content. You'll explore mysterious locations, Mine blocks for resources, and meet strange (and some familiar) creatures, some of which don't even want to kill you and eat your corpse.

Защо „Ранен достъп“?

“We wanted to get our game in the hands of as many people as possible, as soon as possible. We are a tiny team with no budget, so Early Access will allow us to think longer-term, and ultimately deliver a better game.”

Приблизително колко дълго тази игра ще бъде в „Ранен достъп“?

“Until we finish the content we have planned for the 1.0 release. We can't give you an ETA at this point, as we're still quite far from being finished.”

“The full version will have more content, a complete, satisfying narrative and less bugs. What we have in the current Early Access build is a solid foundation, but now our job is to expand on that content in order to finish the game.”

Какво е текущото състояние на версията в „Ранен достъп“?

“The current Early Access version of Signs of Life is very playable and stable. What we have now is a solid experience, although it has only a portion of the planned total content.”

Как се планирате да ангажирате общността в процеса на разработка?

“In any way we can. We're active on the Steam forums, and we love getting feedback from the community. The more you guys get involved and tell us what we're doing wrong the better the game is sure to get. We take criticism well, so don't be shy =)”

21 юли

Got a new update for you folks. The big feature of this update is the long-requested online co-op multiplayer, today is truly a red letter day. Multiplayer uses Steamworks and is drop-in, drop-out, so you should be able to join your friends games through the friends list or the new multiplayer menu from the main menu. Right now the multiplayer is exclusively peer to peer, but we'll be looking into the option of dedicated servers before too long. We've done quite a bit of testing and things seem to be working pretty well, but multiplayer is a very complicated feature so definitely let us know if/when you run into issues.

We've decided to bump the version number to 0.5, because in a way we feel like the addition of multiplayer brings Signs of Life to about the halfway point. Almost all of our technical challenges are solved, and we'll be able to focus on mostly content and bugfixes from now on.

Multiplayer

Added drop-in, drop-out multiplayer. Enabled by default, so you should be able to drop right into your friends' games.

Players join in the middle of the surface of the planet

Players show up as a blue dot on your minimap and also show up on the GPS device

Added a multiplayer join menu to the main menu which shows your friends that are currently playing, you can also join through the friends list

Added an in-game multiplayer menu that allows you to disable/enable multiplayer as well as turn on/off auto join (by default it asks for permission when a friend tries to join your game)

Added a player listing to the top right of the screen when the inventory menu is open and you have other players on your server

Added server-wide chat, opened by pressing T while in game.

New Content

Added a new underground creature

Added Rubbery leg and boot armor based on the above creature

Added Rock creature arm and glove equipment

Added a Burst Rifle

Added several new hairstyles

Hairstyles (including facial hair) are now gender agnostic

Updated sheep graphics, sheep are now shearable with scissors

Added/changed several sound effects

Added rubber wood materials and craftable blocks. Not much use for the rubber wood materials yet, but we'll add more over time.

8 май

Heya folks, got another update for you, sorry for the long delay since the last update but it took us awhile to work most of the kinks out of the new tree system but it also gave us time to add a bunch of fun new stuff.

We totally re-did the tree system, which unfortunately means your trees and bushes will be wiped from existing maps and you'll probably see some fruits floating in the air where the trees/bushes used to be. You may need to use the sandbox menu to generate another map, grab some fruits, and then eat them to get the seeds to begin repopulating your pre-patch worlds with trees. On the plus side, the new trees look and work a lot better, and more details about the system are below in the notes.

We changed a lot of the behind the scenes stuff related to saving items, creatures, projects and bushes, so definitely let us know if you notice any weirdness with things not being saved correctly.

Let us know if you notice any major performance changes, the new way we're saving items may cause some lag and if so we have some ways to speed it up but we're not sure if it will cause a problem yet.

Most of the new content this update was a direct result of the feedback we've been getting from players, so we want to everyone out there for their suggestions and criticisms =) If you run into any issues, let us know in the comments, the forums or you can email us directly at playsignsoflife@gmail.com

New Content

Added 3 new creatures

Sulfur gas creature - Found at medium or deeper depth

Plant creature - Found occasionally on the surface of the planet

Goat - Found on the surface of the planet

New tree system

4 total tree types, each with their own fruit type (including 3 new fruits) that return a seed to your inventory when eaten.

2 wood types, one contains sap and the other contains rubber

Trees now grow slowly, but grow while you are away (even when you are offline)

Fruit now grows slower, but also grows while you are away

Trees re-grow limbs as long as you don't cut it down to a stump.

In order to remove a tree, you must destroy the stump with an axe.

You cannot break the blocks under a tree.

Tree tap item added, can be attached to a tree limb or trunk and generates sap or rubber over time. Holds up to 20 sap or rubber at a time.

Added a Material Grinder that grinds up basic materials like stone and granite in order to find trace metals.

Added a Backglider - Allows you to glide while falling and holding the jump button

Sulfur gas gun - Fires blasts of sulfur gas

Razor Leaf Sword

Added 4 new materials

Laminous Wing

Gas Bladder

Sulfurous Ash

Razor Leaf Blade

Added 3 new fruits

Jiggly Fruit

Delicious Fruit

Sweet Fruit

Added 3 new seeds

Jiggly Fruit Seed

Delicious Fruit Seed

Sweet Fruit Seed

New Recipes

Backglider - 2x Laminous Wing, 4x Bone

Sulfur Gas Gun - 1x Gas Bladder, 3x Plastic, 4x Iron Ingot

Razor Leaf Sword - 1x Razor Leaf Blade, 4x Plant Fibers

Tree Tap - 3x Iron Ingots

Sulfuruous Ash - 1x Sulfur, Requires a mortar and pestle tool as well as a heat source

Material Grinder - 8x Plastic, 12x Iron, 4x Unrefined Glass

UI Changes

Added a loot all button to containers that takes every item from a container and puts it in your inventory

Added buttons to the GPS Device. You can still use the mouse and scroll wheel to navigate, but now there are some buttons too.

A button for centering on the player

A button for zooming in and out as well as a zoom level display

A button for panning around the map

Replaced ore sprites on the GPS Device, more sprites coming for bones/coal/anthracite/amber

GPS Device mineral scan visibility duration doubled

Added a funky holo effect thing to the background of the GPS Device

Added the ability to label containers. Labelled containers will show the text over the container item while inside other containers.

Blocks with rounded corners should no longer leave gaps when placed next to each other. Let us know if you notice blocks that still leave annoying gaps

Gameplay Changes

Flint and Rocks are now throwable

Reduced blue flying creature spawn rate a bit

Bug Fixes

Changed the way the world is saved - This should fix several minor bugs such as items popping out of containers, items not saving proper positions in containers, as well as some dupe bugs related to containers. Let us know if you notice any issues with saving, such as items disappearing after quitting and loading the game

Fixed buggy player movement while walking on rotated/flipped sloped blocks

Possible fix for issue related to not gaining fullness upon eating

Fix for an issue related to crafting using items taken from a worktable in the world

Fixed a crash related to sound effects during the intro escape pod section. The crash should only happen on systems without a sound device, and there will likely be other crashes but this should fix the first one and we'll go from there.

Fixed a bug that would cause the kinetic inductor to not work when encumbered

Fixed an issue that would prevent you from splitting items in containers in the world

Относно тази игра

Signs of Life is a sci-fi survival sandbox platformer with a combination of procedurally generated and hand-crafted content. You'll explore mysterious locations, Mine blocks for resources, and meet strange (and some familiar) creatures, some of which don't even want to kill you and eat your corpse. Along the way, you'll be able to craft armor, weapons, gadgets and more to assist you in surviving in an inhospitable environment.

Story

Sensing that an apocalyptic war was imminent, the United Nations executed a last ditch plan to save what they could of the human race. 2 crafts were launched, a massive colony ship called the Hephaestus and a smaller, faster scout ship called the Hermes. The destination was a recently discovered earth-like planet with the potential to harbor life located roughly 18 light years away. The Hermes reached the planet first in order to establish a presence in anticipation of the arrival of the Hephaestus.

4 years later, as the Hephaestus approached its destination a faint signal was detected from a nearby asteroid. Against their better judgement, the crew of the Hephaestus decided to investigate, and in doing so set in motion a chain of events that would ultimately lead to their destruction.

The good news is, you managed to survive by hitching a ride on a small escape pod just in the nick of time. The bad news is, everyone you knew and loved is dead, you have nothing but the clothes on your back, a standard issue multi-function wrist laser and a faulty artificial intelligence companion named AGIS. Oh, and the human race is probably doomed.

Probably.

Features

An expansive world with procedurally generated and hand-crafted content.

Online Co-Op Multiplayer

A bunch of weird alien creatures.

Some familiar creatures.

Chickens.

Mining, hunting, gathering.

Gobs of ores, materials and animal organs you can use to...

Craft all kinds of weapons, armor, gadgets, furniture, etc.

A bit of story and lore to hold the whole thing together.

Eggs.

All spiritual content in this game has been assessed by Dr. Halamkah, advisor to the stars.

Current State of Development

Signs of Life is currently in Alpha. We feel like we've put together a fun, satisfying experience that will allow us to get wider feedback while we complete the rest of the game.

Right now our first priority is making sure that the content we have in-game is as bug-free, balanced, polished and fun as possible based on feedback from you folks. We have a significant prologue/tutorial planned, as well as significant content beyond what is currently playable, so the sooner you get involved the more of an effect you'll have on the final game. We deal in hard science, and in working very closely with our personal science advisor at Sweet Dog Studios, that tends to lead to results.

We are still very much in development, and we would like you to join us in shaping the game from here on out. Your feedback is vital to us, so don't be shy =)

Caveats/Issues

Some sound effects are missing, but we are actively working on filling them in.

Signs of Life is a game very much focused on exploration and creation, and it does both very well. You start off in a pod filled with only the basics(such as a gun and a single bullet, if being the only one on a planet gets too boring) and a sassy artificial intelligence that doesn't quite understand the meaning of empathy. From there, you must run, punch, and scream your way to a better home.

The graphics and soundtrack are both very pleasing, the crafting system is delightful once you build yourself a nice workshop, and the general building mechanics are pretty well executed. The combat, however, lacks in a way that most sidescrollers do: It's not very dynamic. Despite this, the enemies, or at least the ones that are a threat, are well designed. You can power through them, but their gimmicks enable you to employ some neat tactics to make it a bit more fun.

Signs of Life also does not hold your hand. There's no real tutorial and you're mostly left to figure out everything yourself. Most people I've seen get confused with(what I'd call) the story progression of the game, though there are enough hints left about it to where you can eventually figure it out, and be mad at yourself for not doing so sooner.

The developer is fantastic. They're very engaged with the community, and get right on any issues you may be having. It's worth noting that I had no issues at all until I opted into the beta, and the issues I had there were patched an hour after I contacted them. For an early access game, Signs of Life is incredibly stable and well thought out.

I was very skeptical about buying this game. I wasn't sure if I should buy this or not. I love games rpg/sandbox/crafting/etc. games and this was one of them. I was so use to the pixelated versions. This is more realistic. It's also in very early development. Then I check the forums of the game and the devs are really up to date with the game and communicates with the people. Devs like that will surley bring this game into stardom. That was one of the biggest reason why I bought this game. Other than it being amazing.

Pros/Cons

-Pros

For an Early Acess game, It is really fun with quite a few content that could last you hours.

Devs keep game updated and communicates with the community.

Hotbar- (Organizes tools into one bar and allows you to scroll through it.) Kinda like 1 is for mining, scroll through that one bar and you can switch from laser mining to pickaxe to etc. 2 is for melee weapons, etc.

-Cons

Takes a while to get basics down considering the texts come up at certain times or random times.

None others.

Robot Chickens exists to kill everything.

My Experience

Experience 1 : Crash on an alien planet. Learned how to mine. Laser mined a tree. Couldn't pick up the materials it dropped. Fustrated, I committed suicide by trying to kill a bore. I respawned in a base which I am guessing is a Pioneer station. Kept trying to pick up the mining pickaxe and mining clothes. Still couldn't. Fustrated I Made a new character.

Experience 2 : After creating a new character, I repeated the same process EXCEPT, I found the Pioneer station. Took me forever to mine under it to get inside it. Still couldn't pick things up. I looked in the chests, but too conflicted to bother taking anything. I returned outside and found the alien fighting with the bore. I somehow got caught in the middle and joined war between the two breeds. Sheeps were dying left and right as the bores and alien fought. I died soon after. I deleted the character and tried again.

Experience 3 : Repeated the process up to the Pioneer station. I FINALLY FIGURED OUT HOW TO PICK THINGS UP. It didn't tell me until then. (I will let you guys go through this as well.) Excited, I decided to cut trees and mine ores. Died by running into a mantis alien.

Experience 4 : I tried to go and find the Pioneer station along the way I made some things finally, but I ran into some other base that seem to have no entry point. At least none that I could find. While trying to find one, BY MY LUCK I FOUND A GIANT ROBOT CHICKEN OUT FOR BLOOD. YES I SWEAR TO YOU I WAS STUCK AGAINST THE BASE TRYING TO JUMP UP RUNNING AWAY FROM IT BUT I COULDNT. IT KEPT SHOOTING AT ME . I died a terrifying death.

I was waiting for coop/mp to come out and to leave positive review ...And it cameSo i can say devs keeps their promises +repAnd I give 10/10Because It's very interesting exploration game.Similar to starbound but with more stuff and deeper combat.

I've only started playing, mainly due to what I've seen as the developer's genuine care and involvement for their community. I've been burned out by other EAs where the devs seem to just drop out, even if it had such a good foundation, and this has happened frequently in 2D side-scroller crafting/adventure games. The devs (I don't know how many there are, if there's multiple) seem to frequently update, are involved in the community, and don't come off as defensive rather open to anything. Even negative reviewers have commented positively on the Devs.

Now, onto the game in a simple pros/cons list with overall review:

Pros:

-Simple, yet lovely graphics. This is a smooth looking game for EA, nothing exceptional, but its extremely easy on the eyes.-AI isn't aggressive at appropriate times. I don't feel like I'm constantly under danger, which I appreciate when I'm trying to build/explore.-The technology in the game, although I'm barely in, seems great. As you come in a landing pod, you can guide it to land, and (as per story) the battery begins to die out, I landed on top of an animal splatting it. I actually laughed out loud when it happened, I'm not the type to laugh, rather smile at these situations, and I've come across a few more like it.-I think the Devs listening to feedback is obvious, in other reviews they talk about crafting issues, and as I've just begun to play this game, every ingredient you get opens a recipe, and it seems rather clear cut. While there is some struggle, (pickaxe, for example, I though I'd know how to make it from copper ore, but it took making boards to open the recipe), its not really a pain at all. Its an effort, as I feel there should be with some games. They've also included what seems to be a basic tutorial, again compared to other reviewers, there may've not been one before, and this is representative of the Devs involvement.-Ton of potential, for early access, its incredibly well-done, and considering they just added multiplayer, I think there's a ton of room for this game, and as the devs have proven themselves with this, I look forward to other games from them in the future. The pricing is just right for this.

Cons:I'm only early on, I haven't really seen as many, so this is a nitpick attempt.

-You start off with a multitool that can mine blocks and cut down trees. This isn't bad at all, I like it, but there's instances where a pickaxe or an axe may be necessary in the future, and that kinda gets lost on me. I've come across what seems to be deposits that I can only mine with a pickaxe (I haven't even gone really underground yet), but I don't know what the significant difference is. Again, this is a nitpick attempt, and nothing really critical of the game. As I advance in the game, I may add more cons here, of which I'll note it was edited in, but otherwise.. Not much. Its a really solid EA.

Summary:

This is what I had wanted from my other sidescrolling sci-fi EAs, except not only is it being properly and consistently executed, its being done so by an engaged Dev who seems to care for community feedback and does it at a extremely decent price. For thsoe who've been burned out by EAs that may've fit this bill, I can only try to assure you in that, I feel this is the one sure time we won't get burned. I'm crossing my fingers, but the devs are making a reputation for themselves and have passion behind this game that is all ready a solid foundation.